Former Petrofac chief seeks £40m for offshore wind group Venterra | Money News

The former chief executive of Petrofac, the oilfield services group which collapsed last month, is in talks to raise tens of millions of pounds for the offshore wind energy group he set up four years ago.

Sky News has learnt that Venterra Group, which was established in 2021 by Ayman Asfari, is seeking £40m from investors amid the challenging climate sweeping through swathes of the renewable energy sector.

Venterra has already raised a total of £250m in equity since it was set up, including a substantial sum from Beyond Net Zero, a fund affiliated with the private equity firm General Atlantic.

Lord Browne, the former BP chief executive, sits on Venterra’s board as a non-executive director representing the Beyond Net Zero investment.

Both the General Atlantic fund and First Reserve, another private equity investor in Venterra, both planned to invest as part of the latest fundraising.

While offshore wind remains an important element of the global energy transition, the shifting investment priorities in part precipitated by Donald Trump’s second term as US President have resulted in slower growth than anticipated for companies such as Venterra.

A source close to the company said the failure of several auction rounds across the European renewables industry, and ongoing political uncertainty in the US and UK, had contributed to turbulence in the offshore wind market.

Mr Asfari has been a prominent figure in the UK energy services sector for years, stepped down as Petrofac chief in 2023.

The company agreed to pay tens of millions of pounds the previous year after failing to prevent former employees from offering or paying bribes to secure contracts in the Middle East between 2012 and 2015.

Venterra did not respond to emailed enquiries from Sky News.